A former RUC inspector today rejected suggestions that nail bombs could have been planted in the pockets of one of the victims of Bloody Sunday.
Mr Harry Dickson told the Saville Tribunal he believed that soldiers could not have planted devices on the body of Gerald Donaghy.
He was asked by counsel for the inquiry Mr Christopher Clarke QC whether it was his view that they could not have been planted because Mr Donaghy's trousers were too tight.
"That would still be my view, however I am not saying it would be impossible to do.
"I am saying it would have been very difficult to do unless you had taken a lot of time and effort," he said.
Mr Donaghy's body was driven by a soldier to a detention centre on the Foyle Road after he was shot dead during the civil rights march in the Bogside.
In his statement submitted to the tribunal, Mr Dickson, who was in charge of the centre said he had seen a nail bomb protruding from the pocket of the body as it lay slumped in the back seat of the car.
The question of whether Mr Donaghy, a member of the IRA's youth wing, was carrying nail bombs at the time he was killed has been fiercely disputed.
Civilian witnesses who handled his body in the Bogside, said that he was not carrying any devices when he was shot.
But Mr Dickson said he had seen the device after a detective sergeant removed a blanket from the body.
"I saw an object protruding from the right-hand trouser pocket at the front of his jeans.
"I took this to be a nail bomb. I could not see any nails but I could see the end of the gelignite which looks like marzipan."
Mr Clarke pointed out that an army medical officer who carried out two examinations of Mr Donaghy's body did not recall seeing any nail bombs in his pockets.
One possible suggestion, the lawyer added, was that the officer "didn't discover a bomb because there was none to be found and one or more were placed on the body".
Mr Dickson told him: "No way, that's not possible." In his statement Mr Dickson expressed surprise that the body was taken first to the army detention centre rather than the morgue.
PA